In the previous lecture on April 4, Doojindiscussed how he came to
develop his ideas for the new book, which was immediately greeted with numerous
book reviews and interviews by major news media in Korea. The current
residential architecture in Korea is torn between two extremes; high-rise
apartments (the majority of which are actually condominiums) on one had and
suburban type, low-density single family houses on the other. The concept of
mixed use buildings is still under-developed, if not entirely non-existent. He
proposed, as an alternative, a new architectural idea for the future of Korean
cities: a mid-rise, high density, mixed-use typology, which he dubbed ‘rainbow
cake architecture’, obviously inspired by Korean traditional rice cake with
layers of different colours.

He will give a tour of Seochon area on May 2nd, which he
thinks is a birthplace of many of the ideas for the book and where he
personally lives and works in his own ‘rainbow cake architecture’, the Magnolia
Court.

The tour related to the previous lectuewill offer unique opportunities in
first-hand encounter with one of Korea’s most prolific architects.

Doojin Hwang’s career
as an architect is rooted in the historic centre of Seoul, the ‘Belly of
Alleys’, as he calls it. He and his firm, Doojin Hwang Architects, have
completed more than 100 projects with a wide range of sizes and programs since
2000, including a number of Hanoks, either renovated or newly built.

Despite his popular fame as an architect with keen interests
in tradition and history, Doojin has always been a quintessential urbanite and
has been involved in dealing with urban issues both in his design works and
writing. The year 2015 saw him publishing his fourth book, titled ‘Rainbow Cake
Architecture’, breaking his 8-year hiatus as a writer since his previous book,
‘Hanok Is Back’.